I am bidding on a Hospital carpet & bowling alley carpet job next week and I am leaning towards encapping with my challenger. The green stipe pad is what I will use unless someone can guide me to a better one. As far as encap juice goes, will Realisit do the job or should I move towards Encap Punch or Realisit DS? Thanx Chuck

Hi Chuck, If it's commercial - certainly encap it. I use the fiber plus pads from excellent-supply.com. I use both, the 15" and the 17". They work very well. The green cotton pad can provide some scrubbing and agitation benefits on the stained areas, but will absorb the Releasit so don't use that alone. If you wanted, you could bonnet with Releasit, (as apposed to using Outsolve). I've done that in some situations, but the Fiber pads work best for encap imho .

-Bri

Challenger now makes an encap brush, which comes on
its own pad driver. Just pry off the standard
Challenger pad driver, and push the encap brush on in
its place. $85. Order via www.challengerop.com.
I differ slightly with Brian on 2 points:
I've never felt that the green-striped pads have much
absorbent potential, although if you keep one on for
a long time on a job, it will get dirtier & dirtier.
When I use one of these for encapping, I saturate it
with water or encap solution, to reduce or eliminate
its likelihood to absorb Releasit DS. (Red label)

On the other hand, I would not use Releasit DS Red
label with cotton pads. Rick Gelinas' theory is that
the foam that this product is designed to create
inhibits its ability to absorb soil, and therefore
inhibits the cotton pad's ability to absorb soil.
Releasit Punch (Green label) on the other hand, is
chemically designed for absorbtion/extraction processes. So if encapping with cotton pads (some are
now calling this "padcapping") I would use Punch. The
pads will become much more deeply darkened with
removed soil with Punch. My experience padcapping
with Releasit DS Red label is that the pads never seem
to get much beyond light gray.
While I have done encap jobs with FibrePlus (beige)
pads, the pads seem to wear out fast due to the high
levels of agitation attained by an OP machine, and
bits of broken off pad fibers remain on the surface
of the carpet after cleaning, often requiring post-
vacuuming.

Mark, are you now using the encap brush? Can you comment on the quality and expected life of it? There are no pics or info about it on the Challengerop site.

thanks...

Just to clarify, I'm not using the DS version of Releasit. I'm still using the original " extra strength red label Releasit" from two cases I purchased before Rick developed the new DS version.

Is it possible that the older (red label) version is the same as the now "green" label stuff? Anyway, I have had no trouble padcapping with it. It's clear I will not be able to do this when my inventory runs out soon and need to buy the red label DS stuff.

Mark, Is there much differnce with the new green and vs the old blue releasit version?

Brian
I'll try to get Lee to post a picture of the encap
brush. It has the same heavy wood driveblock as the
standard Challenger pad driver; on the outer edge
(perimeter) is has 3 or 4 rows of white bristles.
The center of the brush is a smooth plastic glider,
permanently attached to the block. The bristles
being white suggests that they are less aggressive
than darker, or black bristles, which might scrub
more effectively on low-pile, glue-down commercial
carpeting. But when I've used it on commercial
carpet, it seems to work very well.
I think the Releasit Red label that you have is half
the concentration of the DS Red label. I am not
familiar with a Releasit Blue label.

Releasit EncapClean Red label ( a.k.a. D.S. which stands for Double Strength) is twice the potency of the Releasit EncapClean Blue label. both products are the same, only difference is the Red label (D.S.) is mixed at 4 oz. per gallon water, whereas the Blue label is mixed at 8 oz. per gallon water.

the Green label bottle is called Releasit Encap-Punch. this product is what Mark described above for use with HWE or cotton bonnet/pads.

this link describes them all : http://www.excellent-supply.com/products.asp?cat=11

thanx --- Derek